LECCO, ITALY | Masterpress, Bialystok, Poland, has installed a ten-color OMETXFlex X6 430 with 5 Offset (Sleeve) units. The press, reportedly ready ahead of schedule thanks to the hard work of OMET's R&D and technical teams, has five UV flexo units, cold foil, rotary die-cutting, and Vision-1 automatic register system. It is the first press by OMET equipped with its new offset unit with sleeves.

The customer has five OMET machines, including this latest one, and is using this press to print shrink sleeve and in-mold labels for the food sector.

OMET Offset (Sleeve) Group, introduced during Labelexpo 2011, is now a reality and an integral part of OMET's combination printing press package. “We are proud to have our first press equipped with sleeve offset at such an important customer,” said Marco Calcagni, OMET sales and marketing director. “The choice was strategic for both; Masterpress was looking for one in-line offset press with characteristics of high speed, excellent quality results, and ease of management, while we were looking for the right customer who could fully exploit the machine potential.” The customer was so favorably impressed by its results that it has put in an order for a second machine in the 670-mm width.

The new Offset Group equipped with sleeves offers many advantages to the customer: the extension of the format range with 1/48 in. incremental steps; ease of job change because the storage space; and the handling burden dramatically reduced thanks to the use of lightweight sleeves. Technological novelties include anti-ghosting system; extra rigidness and absence of sliding parts to avoid unnecessary vibrations; print regulations performed outside the group; maximum printing speed up to 200 mpm; format range from 14–25 in.; pneumatic blocking of the sleeves directly on the machine (as in flexo); integrated automatic register and pre-register—both longitudinal and transversal—controls; remotely motorized ink trays and automatic dampening system; enhanced automatic pressure, temperature; and tension controls.

After XFlex X6 presses, Offset (sleeve) will be available on the whole range of OMET multi-process and platform presses up to 850 mm on Varyflex V2 machines for flexible packaging printing.